THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[21:00:36] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to the second hour of "360" on this very busy Friday night.

Donald Trump campaigning in Michigan this evening after he spent the wee hours on Twitter, calling a former beauty queen disgusting, that was to his word, and telling everyone to check out a sex tape. We'll get to all of that in a moment.

But first, some breaking news. New national and battleground state polling done after the debate shows Hillary Clinton leading over Trump. Now, the first national post-debate poll from Fox News shows Clinton at 43 percent, Trump has 40 percent, a two-point gain for Clinton since the middle of September in the same poll.

Clinton is also leading in post-debate polling in the battleground state of Florida. She's ahead by four points there in a Mason-Dixon poll of registered voters. Clinton's lead is bigger in Michigan, 42 percent to Trump's 35, according to a new Detroit News/WDIV poll, and she has the same seven-point lead in New Hampshire. Again, 42 to 35. Now, Gary Johnson has 13 percent in a New Hampshire poll, and in all the other polls we mentioned, he and Jill Stein are in single digits.

Both Trump and Clinton were on the campaign trail. We'll hear about both of their days from our reporters on the ground, but we begin with the pre-dawn tweet storm from Donald Trump, including new insults for the former Miss Universe, he said gained too much weight. Jim Acosta has all the early morning today.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to his battle with former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, Donald Trump is no Mr. Congeniality.

In response to Machado's claim, Trump called her "Mss Piggy" for gaining weight, the GOP nominate lashed out of the pageant winner in a series of bombastic tweets in the middle of the night. "Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting, check out sex tape and past, Alicia M. become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?" And this, "Using Alicia M. in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from bad judgment. Hillary was set up by a con." The Trump campaign, which offers no proof Machado never even appeared in a sex tape says it's just firing back.

JACK KINGSTON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: I don't know Miss Machado, but I've seen many of the interviews with her. She's not a very credible witness, you might say.

ACOSTA: Machado insists her past is not relevant, admitting to CNN ...

ALICIA MACHADO, FORMER MISS UNIVERSE WINNER: Everybody has a past. And I'm not a saint girl. But that is not the point now.

ACOSTA: In a statement she says Trump's latest attacks are, "cheap lies with bad intentions," adding, "Trump insists on demoralizing women, minorities, and people of certain religions through his hateful campaign. This is one of his most frightful characteristics.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you very much.

ACOSTA: Trump is also ripping into the Clintons, with not-so-subtle references to their past marital problems.

TRUMP: The Clintons are the sordid past. We will be the very bright and clean future.

ACOSTA: Raising questions of hypocrisy for Trump, who's on his third marriage, and has had his own issues with adultery.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, POLITICAL DIRECTOR FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE ONE NEWS: You're not worried about your past history at all?

TRUMP: Not, not at all. And I have a very good history.

ACOSTA: Trump is also attacking the media, blasting reports that he was furious at aides for spilling the beans on his debate preparations, tweeting, "Remember, don't believe sources set by the very dishonest media. If they don't name the sources, the sources don't exist."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And Jim Acosta joins me now. So I understand that Trump spoke in "The New York Times" today about microphone trouble that he had in the first debate. What did he say?

ACOSTA: That's right, Anderson. Donald Trump did find some vindication at the end of this week. The Debate Commission found that there were issues with that microphone in that first face-off with Hillary Clinton at a rally here in Michigan. He suggested that there was some sort of conspiracy, saying to the crowd here that he wonders why his microphone was so bad. It was so bad.

And then when "The New York Times" asked about it, he said, well, he wants to participate in this next debate with Hillary Clinton, but at the same time, he says everybody is talking about this microphone. Anderson, that was enough for the Clinton campaign chair, John Podesta to fire off a tweet of his own late this evening, saying, "I knew it. Donald Trump is going to chicken out," as he put it, "out of these last two presidential debates." So they are just getting warmed up on this microphone issue once again, Anderson.

COOPER: So you pointed out the Debate Commission put out a kind of very brief statement saying that there were problems with the mike in the hall, not to the 80-some-odd million people watching around the country ...

ACOSTA: That's right.

COOPER: ... but not a lot of details beyond that. Jim Acosta, thanks.

Hillary Clinton did not let Trump's Twitter storm go unnoticed. She'd made a point she has made before, a man who can get so provoked by Twitter should not be anywhere near the nuclear codes. Brianna Keilar reports on that.

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[21:05:02] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton taunting Donald Trump after he went on an early morning Twitter tirade about former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I mean, really, who gets up at 3:00 in the morning to engage in a Twitter attack against a former Miss Universe? Why does he do things like that? I mean, his latest Twitter meltdown is unhinged, even for him.

KEILAR: Clinton is campaigning today in Florida, home to 29 electoral votes.

CLINTON: There are 39 days between now and November 8th. Just 39 days left in the most important election in our lifetimes.

KEILAR: The race there has been tight, but Clinton's debate performance is giving her a bump in the polls. She's leading Trump in Florida by four points, largely due to her advantage in the decisive I-4 corridor, the counties between Tampa to north of Orlando. Clinton is also ahead by seven points in both Michigan and New Hampshire. In Nevada, she's up six.

Clinton hopes the next debate in a little over a week will be a one- two punch, even as Donald Trump and his surrogates bring up Bill Clinton's infidelities.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It's fair game to think about how Hillary Clinton treated those women after the fact.

COOPER: And Brianna joins me now live. So the Clinton campaign, I mean, they must be absolutely loving all of this, the fact that at the end of the week, Donald Trump is still talking about something that she brought up, kind of an offhanded mark, certainly a choreographed and planned one, about the former Miss Universe.

KEILAR: Yeah, this has gone way better than they could have imagined, Anderson. This is day five, maybe going into day six. You had Elizabeth Warren tweeting about this. She's obviously supporting Hillary Clinton. She and Donald Trump have been trolling each other back and forth. And so she put out a bunch of tweets today kind of guaranteeing that the story will continue.

And then Hillary Clinton herself talked to Alicia Machado today for five minutes and the campaign put out a readout. They detailed what they discussed on the phone call. Because when Hillary Clinton is talking about this, which they see as bad for Donald Trump with Hispanic voters and women voters, she's not talking about her own vulnerabilities. So you had one campaign aide who said to me Donald Trump can't help but going down the rabbit hole and it does seem, Anderson, that they are going to keep giving him bunnies to chase.

COOPER: Brianna, thanks very much. Lots to talk about with the panel, Clinton supporter, political strategist and former Sanders surrogate, Jonathan Tasini, Clinton supporter, former New York City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn, "New York Times" presidential campaign correspondent and CNN political analyst, Maggie Haberman, Trump supporter, Republican political commentator, Paris Denard, and Trump supporter and former South Carolina lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer.

So Maggie, this late-night early morning tweet storm, it seems like the more disciplined Donald Trump which we have been seeing reading teleprompters after Kellyanne Conway came onboard, that seems to at least this week have just disappeared.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that it was very hard for Trump to look at the criticism that he got after the debate, which was pretty widespread. And I know he has pointed to these internet polls that are not real or not scientific as example -- as evidence that he did well. Every other poll has said that Clinton had handily won and the coverage has all reflected that. Trump has never really had that experience before. He said controversies around things he said in the primary debates, but this was difference and his impulse when he feels like he is attacked or he feels like he is being mistreated, regardless of what the actual facts may be, is to lash out.

The problem is that he is basically treating a former Miss Universe as if she deserves the same level of attention that he does. And that is not the case. This also continues, now day four of a story that his aides would really like him to stop focusing on.

COOPER: Paris, is there nobody in Donald Trump's inner circle who can just say to him, look, just don't tweet, just stop tweeting in the middle of the night or stop talking about Miss Universe because, clearly, he is the one who has continued this conversation all this week on "Fox & Friends". I mean, one thing after another. And it's not doing him any good.

PARIS DENNARD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: You know, what's unfortunate, Anderson, is that Secretary Clinton called this the most important election of our lifetime. And yet, she decided to get involved in federal politics and bring in this issue up at the debate.

COOPER: But how is that gutter politics?

DENNARD: Because it has nothing to do with the election. It has nothing to do with real Americans and what their issues are, and what they're really concerned about.

[21:10:01] COOPER: If a presidential candidate is calling people fat pigs, constantly referencing women's weight, that's not an important issue?

DENNARD: I think an important issue is the fact that there is joblessness, there's hopelessness in many communities, and the fact that people are suffering and really need help. That is the issue that people are concerned about at the dinner table.

COOPER: So what does it say about your candidate that on day four, he continues to talk about something, which by your own admission, is not an important issue.

DENNARD: Yeah. Back to your original question which I will answer, Anderson, is the fact that I think Kellyanne can talk to him and say, Mr. Trump, this might be off-message, you should probably put the Twitter ...

COOPER: But she apparently did that to -- she said she did it to him ...

DENNARD: Right, that's what I'm saying. She is the person that can do that and has done that.

COOPER: Right.

DENNARD: But at the end of the day, it's Mr. Trump, when he feels that someone is attacking him or when he feels that someone is coming after him and trying to go up in his character, he defends and he fights back.

COOPER: Andre, Donald Trump says, you know, he did not take the bait during the debate. And yet, here we are four days later, and because of his own comments, and his continued talking about this, isn't this the definition of taking the bait?

ANDRE BAUER, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Maybe not his definition. Clearly, it's not the message I would like to be, as someone who's supporting the campaign, supporting the candidate. I think he's missing a real opportunity with 39 days out.

COOPER: Right, 39 days left.

BAUER: To be focused like a laser beam on things that directly generate enthusiasm that people coming out to vote and this is sidetracked and it's a carnival show and it's just not healthy no matter what side you're on. And it's not exciting people to come out. It might make a few people mad one way or another, but I'd rather him focus on what I think is strong ...

COOPER: I want to bring in now Patrick Healey from the "New York Times", who's joining us on the phone. Patrick, I understand you just finish an interview with Donald Trump. What are the headlines?

PATRICK HEALEY, NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah, thanks, Anderson. He basically said he had absolutely no regrets about sort of his overnight tweeting rampage against Alicia Machado. He said, you know, why would I have regrets? I'm a very truthful person and I'm telling the truth. You know, now people understand it. Before the tweets, people didn't understand.

So he sort of -- he's stood by those very strongly. And he was really sort of furious about the way that he sees Hillary Clinton sort of seizing on this issue. He said he was absolutely disgusted by the way that she was supporting Alicia Machado. And then he also sort of basically went to this larger, what he saw as this larger pattern of the way that Mrs. Clinton treats women for what he said were her political ends. Basically, sort of really going after the Clinton marriage again, saying that, you know, Hillary Clinton had been married to the single greatest abuser of women in the history of politics and that she had been an enabler.

And he made clear that he wants to put this at the center of his argument. He said, "She's nasty, but I can be nastier than she ever can be." And then I pressed him, Anderson, too, on his own marriages and sort of, you know, the question sort of hypocrisy, since he's been married three times. I asked him if he'd ever cheated on any of his wives, and he said, no, I don't -- I never discuss it. I never discuss it. It was never a problem. And I kept sort of pressing him about, especially Marla Maples, and he said, I don't talk about it. I wasn't president of the United States. I don't want to talk about it.

So, you know, he was definitely trying to sort of keep prosecuting this argument against Hillary Clinton before the first debate, the second debate try to unnerve her. But also still when, you know, when he gets those questions about his own marriage -- marriages, there was definitely discomfort there.

COOPER: So he seemed -- well, I'm curious about that, in particular, because -- so he seemed uncomfortable talking about it? I mean, do you think he didn't expect you to ask those questions? Because obviously that's ...

HEALEY: No, he was pretty -- he was pretty surprised. I mean, he asked me to repeat the question. We were speaking by phone, while he was on a campaign swing in Michigan. You know, but, you know, in talking to him about why he's bringing up President Clinton's indiscretions and kind of why he feels like he has a leg to stand on there, you know, he started kind of making some real kind of moral judgments about their marriage and so I decided to press him on his own relationships, you know, over the years. And it clearly was something that, you know, he basically wanted to say -- I think part of what I was struck by, Anderson, I left this out, was he said that he -- that infidelity was, "Never a problem during his three marriages."

Now, the Marla Maples news has been out there are for a many years, but he seemed to be indicating that unlike President Clinton and the troubles that have brought infidelity was "Never a problem during his marriages."

COOPER: OK. There's a lot of ways to interpret that, I guess. And -- so, he -- did he say anything about participating in the next debate or about the microphone issue?

HEALEY: Yeah, he was very -- Anderson, he was raging about the microphone issue. He was sort of very angry about it.

[21:15:02] He said that about 50 percent of his thought process at the first debate was devoted to trying to deal with this faulty microphone. He basically said all of his problems in the first debate that anyone could see was just related to this microphone.

I kept pressing him about how, on television, he sounded fine, but he was insisting in the hall, it was off, it sort of threw him. Melania was signaling to him from the audience that there was some kind of a problem with the microphone, and he felt very off. And I said to him, well, does this give you any concern about participating in the second debate? You know, does it give you pause? And he said, I want to participate in the second debate, you know, the microphone situation needs to be fixed. But he really kind of indicated that he felt like someone was monkeying around with his microphone and that's who he put the blame on.

COOPER: All right. Patrick, if you could please stay on the line with us. We're going to take a quick break, but we continue this discussion and bring in our other panelists as well. We'll be right back.

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COOPER: Breaking news tonight in a new interview, Donald Trump says infidelity was never a problem in his marriages. He also said he has no regrets about his overnight Twitter storm against the former Miss Universe that he thought gained too much weight. Those were just a few the topics that were covered.

"New York Times" reporter Patrick Healey did the new interview with Trump. He's on the phone with me now.

Patrick, I misspoke when I actually asked you about the audio problems that Donald Trump said existed. I should -- because -- I stated that there were microphone problems. That's not what the Debate Commission actually says.

[21:20:04] They put out a statement saying, "Regarding the first debate, there were issues regarding Donald Trump's audio that affected the sound level in debate hall." And that was basically what their statement was.

So it's Donald Trump saying it was a mike problem, the commission is saying it was an audio problem that just affected the sound in the hall itself. But in your interview, Donald Trump was saying he, himself, was experiencing some sort of distracting problem?

HEALEY: Yes. He was totally focused on the mike, Anderson. He was talking about the way that it was positioned, the height of it, but then also, he felt like someone, as he said, someone was modulating the volume or the levels of the mike offstage and was not doing it to Hillary Clinton. So at times, he felt like he could be heard in the hall, he couldn't be heard in the hall, and he said, you know, he's worked with mikes for 30 years and he knows when something's not working. So, you know, we kept going back to this idea that 50 percent of his thought process during the debate was being devoted to trying to handle the mike and not have it be distraction.

COOPER: I understand you also asked him about something he had said during the debate about a pledge to support Hillary Clinton if she, in fact, gets the presidency?

HEALEY: Yes, he was really kind of going off on Hillary Clinton, her support for Alicia Machado, you know, he is -- the issues with the Clinton marriage. I said, well, look, do you really believe it when you said at the last debate that you would "Absolutely support" Hillary Clinton if she won in November? And he said, look, we're going to have to see. We're going to see what happens. We're going to have to see.

And I had this feeling, you know, so I pushed him on the follow up and it wouldn't move off of -- that we're going to have to see formulation. I mean, it seems like what he's doing and I wrote the story with my colleague, Maggie Haberman, we were talking about it, about how it seemed like what he was trying to get at is kind of the new front where he's really trying to do what he can to kind of unsettle Mrs. Clinton or so we hopes before the second debate. And really kind of put their relationship, their marriage, you know, his -- you know, his take on her own legitimacy, possibly as the future president at stake. And try to rattle her.

COOPER: Pat, is there any other -- anything else I should ask you about from the interview that we're just hearing about it for the first time?

HEALEY: No, he just say, you know, he was just very, very tough on Alicia Machado, I mean, really sort of standing by, again, the overnight tweets that he sent. He sort of asserted again without offering any evidence that she once participated in a sex tape and just sort of kept repeating, you know, that Mrs. Clinton was making this young lady into a girl scout, when she was the exact opposite. And you know, really going tough and I sort of pressed him on, how does this line of attack appeal to, let's say, undecided women voters?

COOPER: Right.

HEALEY: Like, why does he think this helps? And he sort of had this view that, look, it's about saying who these people are and, you know, calling them out, and getting people focused on the right things and hopefully voters will pay attention to that.

COOPER: I should just say, again, for -- we -- there -- we have not confirmed that there is a sex tape that Donald Trump continues to refer to. Patrick, I appreciate you calling in with the latest on that interview.

Maggie Haberman from the "The New York Times", your co-reporter here is -- what do you -- I mean, what do you make of these latest statements from Trump?

HABERMAN: I think that Trump wanted to -- as wanted to go in this direction for a long time. I think that it is front of mind. I think there is some disagreement within his campaign and his advisers about how he should do it and whether he should do it, but I think that there are a lot of people advising Trump right now who were around or involved or had some connection to the impeachment process, when Bill Clinton was going through the Lewinsky scandal. And so I think that for Trump, this feels very top of mind. He also, I think, genuinely has come to believe, this is a front line of attack. I think what he doesn't quite see is that it's opening him up to questions, like what Patrick asked him, about his own marriage, where he said, you know, there was never an issue with that. I mean, there was a pretty tabloidy, well-publicized issue with his first marriage that resulted in his second marriage.

And so I think -- I just think that I don't know how some people around him argue that this will help him, and this will peel women voters away from Hillary Clinton. The way he's delivering this line, it's hard to see how that's going to work. And you're at the stage of the election where it's very tight and what you want to be doing is adding voters not subtracting them.

COOPER: I mean, there's also -- as a Clinton supporter, Christine, you know, there's a lot of folks surrounding Donald Trump in the inner circle advising him, who also have, you know, a pass as well with some, you know, marital problems which, you know, lots of people have.

CHRISTINE QUINN, FORMER NYC CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER: Right.

COOPER: I'm not making a value judgment on it, but that's just a fact. Is that something that then Donald Trump risks bringing into this presidential race, as well?

[21:20:00] QUINN: Well, I think, you know, what the risks aren't, it's kind of in a way almost beside the point because I can't believe we're having this conversation, right? We're on CNN, on your show, a very important show, and we're talking about whether we've been -- the press has been able to validate that there's a sex tape relevant to a former Miss Universe, who now has become the focus of a week of a debate about the presidency of the United States. I mean, somebody's going to write a history book about this some day.

COOPER: But isn't this ...

QUINN: And no one is going to believe it.

COOPER: ... on the Clinton campaign? I mean, isn't -- haven't you thought this past week has gone well?

QUINN: You know, I have to say, I'm saying by this past week in a pure political sense, sure, it's great. But I actually think, and I think if you ask a lot of people in the Clinton campaign, this is bad for the country. This isn't good for the office. And I really don't understand why Donald Trump on Tuesday morning kept it going. And I was on muted this morning and I was shocked. I was preparing to go on and saw these tweets. They're just the most outlandish, undignified, bizarre thing I have ever seen.

And you know, not to be tripe, but my father used to always say to me when I was a kid. It's nice to be nice. And it's a pretty good rule to live by, except I don't think Donald Trump's father ever said it to him. His life isn't about, it's nice to be nice, it's nice to create huge lies about people and then use your media empire to spread them. I just -- it's beyond me. And it goes to the point that he can't be president. A guy who -- not only can be baited by a tweet, but bites into it and can't let go like a rabid dog.

COOPER: But Paris, doesn't it fall -- I mean, for Hillary Clinton's earlier argument that she made during the Democratic Convention, that they can be baited by a tweet, that he can -- that a tweet can so upset him that he loses focus on other stuff, doesn't this play into that narrative?

DENNARD: Look, it plays into the narrative that when somebody attacks your character, that you're going to fight back. If it's at 3:00 in the morning, if that's 4:00 in the morning, or is that a presidential debate, when you attack somebody's character -- and I appreciate your comments, and I think they're very, very spot-on about how deplorable this is. But at the same time, we have to remind the audience. Secretary Clinton inserted this into the debate on purpose. And then the media has -- in part because of Mr. Trump, his tweets, has continued this line. We're not talking about the basket of deplorables ...

QUINN: The word "sex tape" never came out of Secretary Clinton's mouth ever.

DENNARD: And Alicia Machado and those issues came from Secretary Clinton's mouth. She knew this was going to happen and she wanted it to happen because she doesn't want to talk about the issues. And that's unfortunate.

QUINN: She could never have known Donald Trump would do this.

COOPER: Jonathan?

JONATHAN TASINI, CLINTON SUPPORTER: If you could -- first of all, one of the things we're missing in this whole tape issue, is the same effort to blame the victim is what women have faced in cases of rape and all sorts of abuse by men. Machado is not the issue. The issue is we have a deranged candidate. And the spirit of Ana Navarro is still here. I heard her quite fiery. And there's a history to this going back a whole year. Donald Trump's behavior in the last few days is no different than the past year. He is a deranged man.

The "Union Leader" of New Hampshire, which is a conservative newspaper, here's what they said about him. The man is a liar. He's a bully, a buffoon. He denigrates any individual group that displeases him. He has dishonored military veterans and their families.

If you read the "USA Today" editorial, which says, doesn't endorse Hillary Clinton, quite critical of her, he's erratic, ill-equipped to be commander in chief, a serial liar, a man who's not fit to be president, a long editorial. Why are we even -- to Christine's point, why are we even discussing this man as a possible commander in chief?

COOPER: Well, because he is ...

(CROSSTALK)

TASINI: He's deranged. And what we need to talk about is -- I'm sorry.

COOPER: OK, I want you be able to ...

TASINI: If you look at the behavior of this man from the beginning, a serial liar, the way he's attacked women ...

COOPER: Right, right, right. I want Paris to be able to respond.

DENNARD: I think it's irresponsible to call somebody deranged. If you're not a doctor, if you have not analyzed, and you cannot say he's deranged. But to you're point about ...

TASINI: No. His behavior -- when you look at his behavior over the past year, when you look at his behavior in the debate when ...

DENNARD: I mean, look at Secretary Clinton's behavior -- Secretary Clinton's behavior, and how she attacked the victims against President Clinton. If you go back to those interviews that she did, she was very, very much attacking those women and calling out their past. So if you want to open up this window, going to open up the door, she should be very careful.

COOPER: Andre?

BAUER: She knows exactly what she's doing. Number one, there is a sex tape. I mean I easily Googled it today. Not that I want to watch it, but just to clarify, it's not so high in the sky. It's out there.

TASINI: So what?

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Let's just stick on that. Maggie?

HABERMAN: I'm not here to ...

DENNARD: I'm not either, but ...

HABERMAN: But to make the point, real -- fact checkers have found no evidence that there was a sex tape, there was a -- excuse me.

DENNARD: Well, they need help.

HABERMAN: Excuse me, there was a reality T.V. show that she was involved in and that appears to be what they were referring to. But there is not -- when somebody says "sex tape," the image that they come up with is Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton and that is what people think of when they hear that.

[21:25:06] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But, Andre, let's say there was a 100 of them.

(CROSSTALK)

TASINI: She is not the issue.

BAUER: I've watched it today. It's pretty easy to find. So to this real ...

TASINI: We should not be using those words. We should look at Donald Trump's behavior.

BAUER: Hillary Clinton knew what she was doing and she's been using women for a long time, anytime it was convenient for she or her husband, she threw this out like red meat. And so she knows what she's doing and they have -- for the Clintons for a long time have known how to use people to the best of their advantage. And this is just one more example.

QUINN: Can I say, Hillary Clinton has dedicated her life, among other things, to improving the quality of life and life -- of women and girls across the world. So to say that Hillary Clinton -- there's a lot of things people can say about Hillary Clinton and a lot of criticisms, but to say that she has used women is outrageous. She's dedicated her entire life. She went to Beijing and stood up and said that women's rights are human rights. She stood up for lesbians and bisexual women across the world who are getting murdered. You may disagree with her politically, but she has ...

BAUER: She's taken millions of dollars in her foundation from countries and government that absolutely don't think ...

QUINN: She has done more -- she has, without a doubt, in every fact measure, even by conservatives, done more to help women than anyone ...

BAUER: She discredited any woman that came against her husband that had an affair with her husband.

QUINN: But what you see with Donald Trump is attacking a Miss Universe. You see him not believing women in the military who were victims and sexual assault and rape.

BAUER: We've got a Miss Universe -- we got Miss Wisconsin that said he was nothing but a (inaudible) appeared on CNN today.

QUINN: He has been sued for saying that unattractive women cannot work in his clubs. This is a man who has a pattern of behavior, in his own words, saying if you're not a 10, you're not worth it. If you're flat-chested, something to be effective, you're not worth it. He simply can't be president of the United States.

DENNARD: And Secretary Clinton said superpredator and she called us basket of deplorables. He said there are racist (inaudible). If you want to play that game, you can play it. And I don't see her standing up for Gennifer Flowers. I don't see her stand up for all these other women who were attacked by President Clinton.

COOPER: On the deplorable thing, just factually, she did apologize for saying "half." She amended her statement, somewhat. Has Donald Trump ever amended ...

QUINN: Has he ever apologized?

COOPER: Has he ever amended or apologized for anything ...

TASINI: She was talking about the white supremacists and the alt- right people who are ...

QUINN: He hasn't.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: But has he ever apologized or amended a statement to your knowledge?

DENNARD: There was a time on the campaign trail when he said that he apologized for some of the things that he had said that he might have been ...

COOPER: No, no, no. He said he regret it, some generalized things ...

DENNARD: And I don't remember a direct apology from Secretary Clinton.

QUINN: She did. She absolutely did. COOPER: We're going to take a break.

Up next, we're going to more on the "New York Times" reporting. Tonight, Donald Trump attacking Bill Clinton, more on what he said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:36:42] COOPER: Well, Donald Trump has stepped up the rhetoric even further on his attacks on Hillary Clinton based on her husband's infidelities.

In a new interview with Patrick Healy of the "New York Times", Trump said, "Hillary was married to be single, greatest abuser of women in the history politics. Hillary was enabler and she attacked the women who Bill Clinton mistreated afterwards. I think it's a serious problem for them and it's something that I'm considering talking about more in the near future." He's really talking about it now.

Award-winning journalist and CNN political analyst, Carl Bernstein, wrote the book on Hillary Clinton. He joins us now. The book is "A Woman in Charge."

Carl, I'm sure it's no coincidence that President Clinton is talking about Secretary Clinton's heartbreaks and disappointments when their personal life is very much in the public discourse right now, and no small part to Donald Trump.

CARL BERNSTEIN, AUTHOR "A WOMAN IN CHARGE: THE LIFE OF HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON": I think two things are going on at once here. We're watching a rageaholic candidate for the president of the United States become unhinged before our eyes. And at the same time, we're watching he's campaign throw almost all of its marbles into the notion that the great issue here that might resound for them is that Hillary Clinton has mistreated women who were involved with her husband. And they're throwing all their bets on this particular aspect, as a way of winning the presidency. And it's deep in the sewer, and at the same time, there is a kind of legitimacy, if it were discussed in context and truthfully to look at how Hillary Clinton has handled this terribly difficult business that's been thrown at her by her husband.

COOPER: And this is something you've written about. I mean, one of the narratives as you mentioned, the Trump surrogates have been putting forward the last couple of days, that Hillary Clinton intimidated, discredited women who had affairs with Bill Clinton decades ago or made allegations against him, what is the actual truth that, you know, that you've covered in your book?

BERNSTEIN: It's a story that really requires many pages and a couple of hours of television, I think, to tell in context. There is no question particularly back in Arkansas when enemies of Bill Clinton alleged that he had maintained a slush fund, which was not true, to support five women with whom he was having affairs. And the truth is, he was probably having women -- affairs with at least a couple of those women. The women were named. And Hillary -- the law firm that Hillary Clinton was a partner of, the Rose Law Firm, undertook to investigate the women and to get statements from them that they were not having affairs with Bill Clinton.

According to Betsy Wright, who was Bill Clinton's Secretary, and told me that they did get statements from those women, they included Gennifer Flowers that there were no affairs that took place. Some of those statements were probably not true. At the same time, Hillary Clinton interrogated one of those women. So they -- a lot of things go back to that original incident.

COOPER: And how do you think Secretary Clinton will react if Trump brings all these up in the next debate? I mean, she's certainly been dealing with this, answering questions about her husband's infidelities for 25 years. Is it -- I mean, do you think she'll be thrown off guard by it, by something he mentions or what?

[21:39:57] BERNSTEIN: I don't think we can predict how she's going to respond publicly, because she goes to many places with this. First of all, she is a deeply religious person and it's her faith that has gotten her through and awful lot of this, including the Lewinsky period. She goes to the bible, she meditates. And that's part of where she gets some stability and stays level on these questions.

There's also anger that she has had through her life with Bill Clinton for putting her and them into this position. And at the same time, her view of the, "vast right-wing conspiracy is fanning these flames," including Donald Trump as a representative of that particular school of politics, even though he might not come from the vast right-wing conspiracy, she views this whole question the same way, to some extent. It makes her very angry. But she's determined to undermine this line of attack. At the same time, there is a way, I think, that a more reasonable candidate than Donald Trump, if she wanted to make this an issue, could bring it up for discussion. But certainly, Roger Ailes, Rudy Giuliani, they're advising Donald Trump and they're advising him in incendiary way that's blowing up in their faces, I think. And she'll exploit that pretty successfully from everything we've seen in the past.

COOPER: Carl Bernstein, we shall see. Thanks very much.

Coming up, Donald Trump says he loves and cherishes women, but he surrounds himself with men who have a questionable history with the opposite sex. And of course, the question is will the Clinton campaign bring that up if he brings it up in the debate? More ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:45:34] COOPER: Our breaking news, Donald Trump talked to "The New York Times" tonight, slamming Bill Clinton's infidelity, and calling Hillary Clinton an enabler. Going this route is a questionable strategy, given Trump's own history with women as well as all the men he's surrounding himself with during the campaign. Kyung Lah, tonight reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I do cherish women. I love women. KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Trump's critics question if that is really true but it's not only Trump who is facing scrutiny, some of his closest advisers are as well.

STEVE BANNON, CAMPAIGN CEO: We need to have a fight in the Republican Party for the soul of the conservative ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree with you.

LAH: Campaign CEO Steve Bannon, in 1996, he faced misdemeanor domestic violence charges. His ex-wife in the Santa Monica California police report alleging he grabbed her, an incident that the officer says left red marks on her left wrist and the right side of her neck. Those charges were dropped.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a Fox News Alert.

LAH: The man behind Fox News, Roger Ailes, is now an unofficial Trump campaign whisperer although Trump won't officially knowledge his role. Fox News ousted Ailes after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment, most prominently, anchor Gretchen Carlson, who received a $20 million settlement from Fox.

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: You're not supposed to gain 60 pounds during the year that you're Miss Universe

LAH: That's former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich speaking this week defending Trump's comments about Alicia Machado's weight gain after she won the crown. Gingrich is now a Trump adviser. He and Trump have both been married three times, both accused of infidelity in 2012, Gingrich's second wife recalled this about her former husband to ABC News.

MARIANNE GINGRICH, NEWT GINGRICH WIFE: Oh, he was asking to have an open marriage and I refused.

LAH: Then there's Rudy Giuliani, former New York City Major and Trump backer. After Monday's debate, Giuliani spoke to reporters bringing up Bill Clinton's affair, criticizing not just him, but Hillary Clinton.

RUDY GIULIANI, NEW YORK CITY MAJOR AND TRUMP BACKER: She attacked Monica Lewinsky. And after being married to Bill Clinton for 20 years, if you didn't know the moment Monica Lewinsky said that Bill Clinton violated her, that she was telling the truth, then you're too stupid to be president.

LAH: But Giuliani should be able to relate to marital strife. Married three times, he announced his separation to his second wife at a press conference before telling her. His divorce and affair playing out publicly on New York tabloid front pages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Trump's closest advisers are not all male. His campaign manager is a woman, Kellyanne Conway, and another person who has his ear is also a woman, his daughter, Ivanka. Anderson?

COOPER: All right, thanks very much.

Up next, something to clear the palette, shall we say? Anthony Bourdain, we're going to talk to him about his visit to Nashville, the food he ate, the music he heard, and the meal he'll never forget. Let's just say, he may have met his match.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:52:11] COOPER: A new episode of "Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown" premier this next weekend on CNN. Anthony went to Nashville for this episode to explore the food, the music, things that's unexpected term though when he sample a local specialty dish so spicy, even Anthony was humbled. I talked about it recently with him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So this upcoming episode here in Nashville, Tennessee, one of the great cities in America, why did you pick Nashville this time?

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, "PARTS UNKNOWN" HOST: I thought Nashville is one of the fastest-growing cities in America, if not the fastest, I'm not sure. I think 100 people on average move there every day.

COOPER: Wow, I didn't know that.

BOURDAIN: It is still affordable, it is increasingly very cool. It's, of course, you know, it touts itself as a music city USA and you think, you know, country music. Not so.

COOPER: I assumed you went to hang out with some musicians or?

BOURDAIN: It is a very music-centered show. We were extra ordinarily fortunate maybe, we've never been so lucky. We got Margo Price. We got the band, The Kills.

COOPER: Oh, wow.

BOURDAIN: We have the band, The Dead Weather with Mr. Jack White, the third man records. So it is a very music centric show, but not always necessary the music you would stereo typically expect.

COOPER: Right.

BOURDAIN: It's probably the greatest bounty of great music that we've ever had on the show.

COOPER: Wow. So what's the food that you focus on?

BOURDAIN: The food, I don't know, it's all about the music. No, hot chicken, you know, how you feel about that liver?

COOPER: I will tell you that it's very good liver. I just -- I'm not ...

BOURDAIN: It is just weird to say the masochistic thing that they -- I don't know whether they eat it themselves or whether they just -- they have these places for like people from out of town that come in as a way to passage.

COOPER: It's just crazy spice ...

BOURDAIN: It's chicken is best I could tell just like dredge inch- thick coating of pure cayenne pepper. And it is --look, I've been in many places and I have eaten many things. Never in my life, has a meal destroyed me.

COOPER: Really? Because, you're -- I mean you have like an iron stomach. You never -- you don't even sweat it seems like when you're eating hot stuff?

BOURDAIN: Oh, my God. I was -- it's four days. I was out four -- I mean, I didn't miss four days of work but I was limping.

COOPER: Really?

BOURDAIN: And chastened. And, you know, I thought I'll take, you know, they offer you -- of course, they offer mild, medium and hot.

COOPER: Right.

BOURDAIN: And like a complete knuckle head, you know, I can take the hot.

COOPER: Right.

BOURDAIN: I've been, you know, I've been to (inaudible) ...

COOPER: Right.

BOURDAIN: ... in China. No, I don't think Nashville actually eat the hot. I think they save that for the Yankees, because it was just -- yeah, I was working the circuit between bed and the bathroom.

[21:55:02] COOPER: Really?

BOURDAIN: It was like the Indy 500, the quicker and uglier, much uglier. Faces will melt, heads will explode, lives will change.

Just ahead, a milestone moment for a 103-year-old voter says she has waited her whole life to cast a ballot for a female candidate.

(COMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And before we say good-bye, an update on a woman we introduced you to back in February. The Iowa caucuses, Ruline Steininger who was102 years old at the time born before women were allowed to vote, told our Gary Tuchman she wanted to long live enough to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Well, Ruline has gotten her wish. When early voting opened in Iowa yesterday, Ruline who turned 103 in April was one of the first in line. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RULINE STEININGER, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: I never thought I'd vote for a woman for president, but I'm glad the time has come.

Do I have an audience?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do.

Right here at the Democratic Party, that's what you want?

STEININGER: Yup.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have to put it in the box.

STEININGER: This is the most important election that I have ever voted in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And now you're about to drop it in.

STEININGER: Oh, sure I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[22:00:00] COOPER: She sure did. Ruline also got to meet Hillary Clinton who was in the town campaigning. Ruline cast her first presidential ballot in 1936 for FDR. She's voted in every presidential election since then. Congratulations.